March 17, 2011

Friday, 17 March 1911

Scott

Stuck in the Discovery hut -- now with the advent of Taylor's party crammed with sixteen men -- waiting for the sea to freeze so that they could return to Cape Evans, Scott became nervous and moody. "In spite of all little activities I am impatient of our wait here. But I shall be impatient also in the main hut. It is ill to sit still and contemplate the ruin which has assailed our transport. The scheme of advance must be very different from that which I first contemplated. The Pole is a very long way off, alas! Bit by bit I am losing all faith in the dogs -- I'm afraid they will never go the pace we look for." [1]

Venting his frustrations, perhaps, on the only available Norwegian, Scott gave Gran a public dressing-down for being "lazy" and "a malingerer". "All that remains," he fumed in his diary, "is to rid oneself as far as possible of the nuisance of his presence." [2]

"I could not help feeling a bit sorry for Trigger," Bowers wrote, "as he always meant well & was the youngest of the party. A year at an English school would have worked wonders for him as he is in every respect a nice fellow." [3]

Anon, the only place that I know of is in the microfilm edition of Scott's diaries, I think the only full "publication" there is. I believe it is in multiple rolls, but includes all base and sledging diaries and the 1911 "South Polar Times".

If you are curious and/or interested, you can find this microfilm edition in libraries near you through WorldCat (http://www.worldcat.org/) by entering this search: no:47261

The British Library has the last volume of Scott's diary online, but that is all, I suppose because the last volume is of course the most dramatic.

About this page

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Amundsen and Scott expeditions to the South Pole.

Scott's route

Amundsen's route

A Note on Dates

When the Fram crossed the International Date Line on the way South, Amundsen did not drop a day from his calendar. The Norwegian diaries from mid-January 1911 to late January 1912 thus were on "Framheim time", dated one day later than they should have been: that is, according to Greenwich Mean Time instead of local time. Amundsen noted this specifically in his entry for the Pole itself, headed "Friday 15 December (really 14th)". No little confusion arises in published sources as a result, and doubtless a number of inconsistencies appear on this page. (See the entry for 10 January 1911 for further information.)

Dates are here adjusted to one day earlier than written in the Norwegian diaries, for entries between 10 January 1911 and late January 1912. Bibliographic citations are as in the published sources.